Israel strikes Hamas sites across Gaza

FIGHTING FIRE: An Israeli fire fighter tries to put out flames caused by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip today that landed in a field near Kibbutz Karmia in southern Israel. Seven rockets were fired today towards Israel, lightly wounding two people, the army said. Israel responded with four airstrikes, targeting two suspected arms caches and two Hamas bases. TSAFRIR ABAYOV, ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM Israel's deputy defense minister threatened Tuesday to target Hamas political leaders, calling them “terrorists in suits” after a rocket attack by the Islamic militant group killed an Israeli woman.

The harsh words were backed up by action. Israel airstrikes Tuesday and early Wednesday targeted four suspected arms caches and three other Hamas sites across Gaza, and an Israeli helicopter strafed a rocket launch site with machine-gun fire. Palestinian officials said 16 people were wounded.

The injured included a pregnant woman and a teenage boy living next to an unoccupied building that was hit early Wednesday in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. The Israeli military said the target was a Hamas arms dump and that “secondary explosions were identified,” apparently exploding ordinance.

The 31-year-old woman who died Monday night was the first Israeli killed by a Palestinian rocket since November, inviting a harsh response. Militants fired nine more rockets at Israel on Tuesday, slightly wounding two people, the army said.

Israeli leaders suggested that even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be targeted in reprisals, with Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh calling Hamas' leaders “terrorists in suits” in a radio interview.

“We don't care if he's a ringleader, a perpetrator of rocket launching or if he is one of the political leaders,” Sneh later told The Associated Press. “No one has immunity.”

Wary of Israeli strikes, leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza have lowered their profiles, turning off cell phones and staying off the streets.

“Harming ... any of Hamas' leadership will cost the occupation dearly,” he said. “This will mean responses.” He did not elaborate.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the moderate Fatah, traveled from his West Bank headquarters to Gaza for talks with Hamas leadership in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a truce with Israel and rein in factional bloodletting between the two factions.

Abbas himself is seen as a potential target of Hamas. Witnesses said he entered the strip Tuesday evening in a motorcade of dozens of vehicles bristling with armed guards, while presidential security forces locked down central Gaza thoroughfares and marksmen staked out rooftop vantage points along the route to his seafront official residence.

Fatah officials said Abbas would meet Haniyeh but would not divulge the timing or location, citing security concerns.

After a six-month lull, Israel resumed airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza last Wednesday in response to heavy rocket fire. More than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed.

Israel's high-tech military has not been able to find a solution for countering the crude homemade rockets. In the past week, more than 150 rockets have landed in and around Sderot, a town of 24,000 people about a mile from the Gaza border.

FIGHTING FIRE: An Israeli fire fighter tries to put out flames caused by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip today that landed in a field near Kibbutz Karmia in southern Israel. Seven rockets were fired today towards Israel, lightly wounding two people, the army said. Israel responded with four airstrikes, targeting two suspected arms caches and two Hamas bases. TSAFRIR ABAYOV, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DESTRUCTION: A Palestinian boy looks at a destroyed metal workshop after an Israeli missile strike today in Gaza City. HATEM MOUSSA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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